RealtyTrac analysis: Still better to buy than rent on Treasure Coast

Even though the estimated monthly house payment for a median-priced three-bedroom home purchased in the fourth quarter of 2013 increased at least 22 percent from a year ago in the Treasure Coast and rents for similar homes have fallen slightly, it is still a better deal to buy than rent, a RealtyTrac analysis shows.

INDIAN RIVER

Single-family home median price: $145,167

Estimated monthly payment: $691

Percent change from same period 2012: +23

Rent for 3-bedroom home, January 2014: $1,162

Percent change from 2013: -0.9

MARTIN

Single-family home median price: $216,000

Estimated monthly payment: $1,029

Percent change from same period 2012: +22

Rent for 3-bedroom home, January 2014*: $1,273

Percent change from 2013: -1.5

ST. LUCIE

Single-family home median price: $113,150

Estimated monthly payment: $539

Percent change from same period 2012: +31

Rent for 3-bedroom home, January 2014*: $1,273

Percent change from 2013: -1.5

*Fair market rents are by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development using Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The Port St. Lucie MSA encompasses St. Lucie and Martin counties.

What it shows: Estimated monthly housing payments were higher than fair market rents in only 29 of the 325 most-populous U.S. counties included in the analysis. Everywhere else, including all three Treasure Coast counties, the estimated monthly house payment for a median-priced, three-bedroom home in the fourth quarter of 2013 — including the increase in costs to buy with financing, insurance, taxes, maintenance and subtracting the estimated income tax benefit — was lower than average fair market rent for a three bedroom home, RealtyTrac’s analysis shows.

What an expert says: “A potent combination of rapidly rising home prices and the often-overlooked but significant uptick in interest rates in the second half of 2013 caused the monthly cost of owning a home using traditional financing to jump substantially in many markets over the last year,” said RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist. “The monthly cost of owning a home is still less than renting in the majority of markets, but the cost of financed homeownership is becoming dangerously disconnected with still-stagnant median incomes, driven not by shoddy underwriting practices this time around but by investors and other cash buyers who are not tethered to the typical affordability constraints.”